All Things Census

Hispanics will account for three-quarters of the growth in the nation’s labor force from 2010 to 2020, according to new projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). One major reason is that the Hispanic population is growing rapidly due to births and immigration. At the same time, the aging of the non-Hispanic white population is expected to reduce their numbers in the labor force. Read more

How much did the U.S. foreign-born population grow from 2009 to 2010? According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the number grew by 1.5 million, or 4%. But a new Pew Hispanic Center analysis concludes that the growth was markedly lower. Read more

A new Pew Research Center report confirms that marriage continues to lose market share among Americans to other arrangements, such as cohabitation or living alone. According to census data cited in the report, barely half of adults ages 18 and older are married— 51% in 2010, compared with 72% in 1960. This decline is especially notable for young adults: 20% of 18- to 29-year-olds were married in 2010, compared with 59% in 1960. Read more

The November 2011 issuance by the U.S. Census Bureau of a new Supplemental Poverty Measure has rekindled interest in questions that have been raised at various times over the nearly half century since the first official measures were published. Are the poverty measures used for so many years really so flawed they need a total overhaul? If so, why weren’t they fixed sooner? How and why did the new alternative recently unveiled by Census emerge from the pack? What are the politics? What’s the social science? What core values are put in play by the choices we as a society make about how to measure poverty? Read more

The Census Bureau recently released results from its alternative measure of poverty, which uses a wider range of factors than the official metric to account for people’s living expenses and the money or other resources they have to pay them. Most of the reaction to the alternative measure focused on its overall impact on poverty rates, but the new metric also is notable for breaking with tradition in the way it assumes cohabiting couples share their money. Read more

The Census Bureau has just published the results from its new alternative measure of poverty, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, and they differ notably from the poverty rates shown by the official measure that’s been used since the 1960s. A new report by the Pew Hispanic Center compares results under both measures for key demographic groups. Read more

The number of Americans living in multi-generational households shot up from 2007 to 2009, the years of the Great Recession, to a record 51.4 million people. A new report from the Pew Research Center reports on the demographics and economics of these households, and concludes that moving into a multi-generational households appears to “lift people out of poverty.” Read more

The Census Bureau announced today that more than one-in-four same-sex couples counted in the 2010 Census was likely an opposite-sex couple, and identified a confusing questionnaire as a likely culprit. The bureau released a new set of “preferred” same-sex counts, including its first tally ever of same-sex spouses counted in the census. Read more

The Census Bureau today released data for communities, states and the nation from the 2010 American Community Survey, which enriches and expands on the basic demographics from the 2010 Census. Among the subjects it includes are education, immigration, income, poverty, commuting and housing. Read more

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.